28/02/2016

28/02/2016; 03:51:

Later on Sunday, we had an RCB class. The fest coordinators for Iris, i5Summit, Udaan and Utsaha were announced at different points through the day.

In the night, Team Airlift announced permanent delivery services- they’d done a trial run with the roses and cards before Valentine’s Day- they’ll now be delivering food from the night mess, through the night. It’s funny watching the 4-member team, in the night mess all night- taking orders, placing orders, collecting them and then coordinating the deliveries. Let’s see how this pans out.

22nd morning began with a Finance class and then an SM one. The HRM quiz papers were shown in the afternoon, after much confusion about the time and venue.

Meanwhile, CCTV cameras have been successfully installed at both Gate 1 and Gate 2. The next target is apparently the boys’ hostels- there’s a certain privacy issue with the girls’ hostels so that’s a long way off.

At 5:30 p.m., we headed up to the Old Audi to hear a guest lecture by Dr. Sam Pitroda- he spoke about his journey, spearheading the telecom revolution in India (beginning in 1989), and the future of our lives in the face of rapidly changing technology. His closing message was simple- Be innovative; think out of the box; move out of your comfort zone and go, get things done! This talk raised a lot of important questions including whether we ought to first increase the effectiveness of the internet technology where it is already available or if the focus should first be to increase reach. Dr. Pitroda believes that more 60% of the job titles that we’ll hold in the next 10 years haven’t even been coined yet- that really is an interesting thought- and we’ll really have to wait and watch!

The Semi-finals of the Cricket League began at 6:30 p.m. The top two teams from each pool played the semi-final; somehow, both the pool winners lost their semi-finals and the other two teams were to play the final.
We had 2 SDM classes on the 23rd i.e. Tuesday where we moved to the second part of the course- from discussing distribution channels to discussing the levers in the sales process namely Skill, Structure, Process and Compensation- each of the levers would be dealt with using a case. The case at hand dealt with the skill involved, using the example of a Software Services company.

In the run-up to their farewell, the seniors had group photographs through the afternoon. They’d all dressed up in suits and this activity carried on well into the evening.
At midnight, the final of the Cricket League was held. With that coming to a close, a Football League was immediately announced. There’ll be a bidding before the matches start on the 25th.

24th morning began with a Finance class followed by an SM class- the timetable has been scheduled to run section-wise classes on one day and then the electives on the next day, in alternation.
Later in the evening, I headed up to SR02 with the IRIS Vertical Handover form, to confirm my appointment as the coordinator of the Media Vertical for this year.

There were then two pre-processes to be sent in- one for the Media vertical of Utsaha and another for the Media Vertical of the i5Summit. I drew up a detailed, week-by-week media strategy for both.

Close to 11 p.m., I headed up to SR09 to help with some farewell-related activities- the Cultural Committee puts in a lot of work at this time of the year and they’d called for volunteers to help with the distribution of mementos to the senior batch; food coupons for the farewell were also to be handed out.
The mementos were personalized- an etching of the main entrance of IIM-Indore on a metal plate that was mounted on clear glass, supported by a wooden base and a second metal plate that had the person’s name and said ‘Class of 2016’ in large font. The mementos looked impressive- they were in large cartons, sorted by hostel blocks; we headed over to SR04 to begin distributing the mementos to the ladies there. It took about two hours to hand them all out and personally invite everyone to be a part of the farewell activities on 27th and 28th.

Meanwhile, Team Airlift sent out an email announcing a discount to people who could correctly guess a hidden clue in their email- apparently, they’re going to begin using drones to deliver the food, in the near future. Some enquiry revealed that this near future is somewhere next term- they’ve been working on a couple of models for a while now and hence the name.

The bidding for the Football League was held at midnight, in Mess 1. There were players waiting to be sold, the captains ready to bid for their choice of players and the Sports Committee to carry out the process. Some 8 teams including a team of exchange students were put together. The matches began on 25th evening.

25th morning saw two SDM classes where we discussed a case involving a jewellery company that employed the direct-selling method through a network of sales representatives.

At around 1:30 p.m., interviews for the Utsaha Media team were held; my interview was the last one post which I spent over an hour discussing everything from the clubs on campus to the US presidential election with the outgoing boss. He shared his views on our batch, noting that their batch had been a lot more enthusiastic about the fests and events on campus than either our batch or their senior batch- let’s hope that his fears of the events not being bigger and better are not realised!

I then spent some time calling up some PGP2’s to request for pictures to be sent in for the yearbook- pictures of winning teams at various competitions were to be collected. We’d collected these pictures earlier in the month but someone had managed to delete the entire folder of pictures from the drive resulting in this chaos. Luckily, most of the seniors were understanding (perhaps eager to receive their yearbooks) and we got a decent bunch of pictures.

Meanwhile, the points that we’d put together as part of our Sustainability assignment on Evaluating Social Capital at IIM-Indore were heard at the Hostel EC meeting. They explained some of the staff concerns and promised to look into some of the suggestions. It’s nice to contribute to anything positive!

In the evening, we headed out for the Media Comm farewell party. We headed to Mama Loca to get some good food at a place with some nice ambience to add to the delight of the evening. We got back to campus around 11 p.m. and then got around to clicking some group pictures- perhaps the last of the Media Comm group pictures before the senior team leave campus after their farewell.

26th morning began with an 8:45 a.m. class where we urged the professor to shift our remaining classes to the 10:15 slot. We’ll see how that goes. We discussed Blue Ocean strategies in the SM class- it’s when a company moves beyond the boundaries of an existing industry into creating a new industry altogether. It chooses not to compete in the Red Ocean which is the existing industry but instead to carve this whole new existence.

After class I got back to my room and slept through the afternoon and most of the evening. At around 7 p.m., I headed to give an interview for the i5Summit media team and then went out for dinner.

At 10:30 p.m., everyone headed to the Old Audi for a Master Class session organized by Mercur-I, the marketing club. The theme for the talk was ‘Baton to Competitions’- expert advice on the best strategy to employ in order to win various case competitions through the year was shared by seniors who’d won a bunch of National-level events through their second year.

27th morning began with two SDM classes- one right before lunch and one right after, where we discussed revising the compensation structure for sales reps in order to drive desired sales behaviour and volumes.

I headed upstairs in the evening, to try and find something to eat- I succeeded in getting myself some oranges and then I stopped by SR08 to sign the handover form for Usaha media coordinator. Some dinner in the mess later, we headed to the football field for Day 1 of the two-day farewell event- Au Revoir.

The evening began with a bunch of performances by Harmon-I (and, by evening I mean that the first performance began a little after 10 p.m.). Soon, nostalgic PGP2’s were taking over the stage, singing songs in varied languages. A cake cutting ceremony followed. The evening was brought to a close around 12:30 a.m. with the lighting of sky lanterns. Most attempts at getting the lanterns successfully lit ended in disaster; a few lanterns out of the hundreds made it into the sky, soaring up, up and away into the distant night sky- a seemingly fit representation of time flying by, with everything that’s happened in that time fading into the distance, to remain as only vague, delightful memories in people’s minds and hearts.

We then had a leadership session where we spoke of successful crisis management by corporates and discussed historical examples of good leadership. Some food in the night mess later, it was time to get writing since there’ll be so much more to write about tomorrow, after the final day of the farewell.

21/02/2016

20/02/2016; 07:02:

Once back from the Lasya party, I headed over to Mess 1 to pick up a birthday cake that’d been kept there for safekeeping. The whole setup was ready right before midnight and two cakes were cut to the sounds of ‘Happy Birthday’- it was my neighbour’s birthday and my room was to be hosting the party. Of course, the party ended soon enough once both cakes had been eaten.

There was a single SM class on 18th morning post which we lay around doing pretty much nothing until another Sustainability class at 5 p.m. We then headed out in the evening as part of the aforementioned neighbour’s birthday celebration.

19th February began early in the morning with the usual 8:45 a.m. class. Somehow, it feels like I’ve been awake forever and that it’s definitely been more than a single day. It has been about 24 hours- and a very eventful 24 hours at that too!
We had a presentation to give, in the Sustainability class- somehow, incredibly, our whole group had worked equitably on this project and our work was well appreciated. The 10:15 slot was randomly empty- somehow, the PGP Office does not realise the uselessness of having this slot empty when there are classes both right after and right before it. 75 minutes is not enough time to run back to your room and catch a nap and 75 minutes is also too much time to sit around and wait for the next class. This problem was solved for the day since a Leadership workshop session managed to be scheduled. The Leadership Workshop is a 2-credit course, this term. A group of 10-12 students have been assigned a mentor each, from the PGP2 batch- these mentors are responsible for conducting the sessions as well as for the evaluation. Today’s session dealt with making an extempore speech, 2-3 minutes long, on a random topic. My topic was ‘If you don’t participate in the rat race, you will end up a dead rat’. After this, there was an interesting Finance class, post which we received an email announcing a LAB quiz at 5 p.m.
I headed down to my room to get some work done- there was a pre-process to be submitted to be part of the Voice of Indore Senior Team, for IRIS 2016. It was a simple, interesting and very relevant pre-process which included preparing the budget for the event, designing the pre-process for the selection of the junior team and listing your contribution as a member of the junior team. I then attempted to study for the quiz but gave up soon enough and headed to the Hostel Office to book a guest room for a friend is visiting soon.

21/02/2016; 11:29:

I went up to the Acad Block for the quiz which was very interesting- the first part had 15 short cases along with their verdict. One had to merely agree or disagree with the decision that had been taken. The second part was a few True/False statements.
While all sections had managed to have a section party in the first term itself, ours was long overdue. Despite being pegged the ‘party section’, we were the only ones to not have had one- this was to change soon i.e. on the 19th of Feb. We all headed to Rider’s Republic for our much-awaited section party. There was music, food, dancing and someone had even taken on the role of official photographer!
Once back, we all ran to the Old Audi for a batch-meet scheduled to begin at 11:45 p.m. By around 11:50 p.m., the whole batch was seated in the Audi, waiting for the meeting to begin. Just as the Coordinator began to make his way across the stage, to the podium to begin speaking, a dog darted in the door, dashed onto the stage and stood triumphantly at the podium while the Coordinator looked on, shocked. The entire auditorium broke into spontaneous laughter while the dog who was clearly enjoying the attention decided to get up close and personal with his new-found fans. So for the next ten minutes, the Placement Committee members proceeded to chase the dog around the auditorium- up the stairs, down the stairs, across the stage- while everyone looked on. By now, the auditorium had split into two teams- one cheering for the dog and the other rooting for the Placement Team. We figured that the dog was probably looking for a placement too; and the placement team members now had a new item added to their job description. Eventually, some security staff made some appearance, armed with their sticks and managed to chase the star out of the back door!
As the Audi grew silent once again, I yelled across the floor to wish someone a Happy Birthday for the clock had just struck twelve. This was cue for everyone to start singing- some of them didn’t even know her name, but that didn’t stop anyone.

Eventually, order was resumed and the meeting began with apologies for the delay due to ‘technical glitches’. The senior batch had been working hard, through the year, preparing material for both our summer placements as well as their own final placements. It was decided that a separate Placement Preparation Committee was to be formed, to take on this task, from the new year forth. This was to ensure that we had original content being created, the content was relevant specifically to IIM-Indore and the working was efficient. The Committee will have about two members for each domain to ensure that all bases are covered. Applications for the committee were thrown open shortly after the meeting.

I headed down to the hostel, planning to sleep. But, that was not to be. Less than half an hour later, I was on the football field, yelling at the top of my lungs. The campus IPL began two days ago and a match had just started at 1 a.m. - one team managed to win an ‘all-out’ victory in all of 10 overs. A second match then began at around 3 a.m. Somewhere towards the end of the second innings, a fight broke out. The batsman had hit the ball towards the boundary in what he thought was a perfect six. A fielder had managed to jump in the air and strike the ball inwards, straight into the hands of a waiting team member. After a few moments of deliberation, the umpire declared the batsman out. The entire batting team and their rather large group of supporters broke into loud screams declaring that the shot was most definitely a six. A 45-minute argument then followed where the rules of cricket from different sources were googled, interpreted and misinterpreted. The fielding team kept insisting that the umpire’s first decision ought to be the final one. Two other umpires had also joined in as had all the members of the Sports Committee. Eventually, someone announced that the decision taken by the Sports Comm. would be final. Then, they proceeded to have a meeting right there, in the middle of the ground while everyone looked on. Finally, the ball was declared a dead ball and the game continued. The batting team won the game, a few balls later; it was 5 a.m., by this point and some cheering later, everyone was back in their rooms.

I decided to stay up and wait on the sunrise. Some mindless gossip later, I was on my table, writing, watching the sun come up. Happy, I eventually fell asleep.

I got up close to 4 p.m. on 21st, all ready to go for class at 5 p.m. The PGP Office had managed to troll me- they’d sent in an email at around 11 a.m. announcing that the 5 p.m. class had been preponed to 3:30 p.m. If only they’d sent in this email the night before. But then, no one else really sets an alarm for 4 p.m.

In the evening, we headed out for dinner since it was a close friend’s birthday. Some nice food later, we were back on campus. There were some interviews going for, to ascertain the senior teams for the various Iris events. Some aimless ambling around later, I was back in my room and fast asleep.

And I’m now up on a Sunday morning, even though I do not know why. Life’s good!

17/02/2016

17/02/2016; 18:45:


The new month began with classes in the morning and an end term in the afternoon- an RIP end term. There were a few short-answer questions to assess our exposure to rural India after our week-long stints in villages across Madhya Pradesh.

Globe@I staged a re-launch after their month off- it now has new owners (still students) and a slightly changed menu. They promise that the menu will be periodically revised to include student demand/ desires.

We had our first Sales & Distribution Management (SDM) class at 8 p.m. A group activity was scheduled to happen in this first session, to help us understand the need for organized distribution systems. 5 groups, of about 7 students each were to be the buyers and the other 5 groups were to be sellers. Each group of sellers had one kind of item to sell- Oil, bread, shampoo, soap and biscuits. Each set of buyers had been given a demand schedule and were required to procure a certain quantity of each item in the market. The goal of the sellers was to maximise their profits by selling at the highest possible price. The goal of the buyers was to procure the exact quantities in the demand schedule at the lowest possible price. Receipts of each transaction were to be maintained by both parties involved. While everyone wandered around the classroom, trying to get the best price they could, I suggested that we just make fake receipts. The penalty for any wrong entry was 20% of the total. Even with the 20% penalty, we could easily get the best ‘deal’ without actually making any transactions. Of course, my group members did not agree to my genius plan. I decided to take matters into my own hands. First, I went up to the biscuit seller and inquired about the maximum quantity that they could sell to me. This figure was about 5 times that listed on the demand schedule. A price was quoted. I offered to buy but only at about 10 times the quoted price. Of course, they readily agreed and quickly filled out a receipt. This was where the evil genius came in. I filled in a random group number (not mine) and submitted the receipt. I then continued to make large purchases at exorbitant rates, filling in different group numbers each time (I covered all groups other than mine). The sellers were surprised but happy. Now, we would win by virtue of all the other buyers’ spending being much higher than ours (I correctly assumed that my group had stuck to the demand schedule and reasonable prices).
The professor is obviously in for a surprise when he gets around to evaluating our performance in this group activity.
2nd morning began with some classes. A case was discussed in the SDM class- our professor is a visiting faculty member from Goa and his comments make the class more than interesting.
Later in the evening, there was some Media Comm. work to be done- a form had been sent out, asking for everyone to fill in their achievements over the past year(s) and provide pictures of the winning moment. This data was to be collated into presentable form and sent to the Director. Luckily, this task took lesser time than I’d anticipated and I then quickly got to doing the first pre-process for the position of SAC-Treasurer. It was a rather comprehensive pre-process- the SAC budget for the new financial year (2016-17) was to be drawn up; all taxes applicable to the SAC were to be detailed; and then there were a few questions relating to dealing with any deficit that may arise out of a fest during the year.
After duly sending this in, I headed up to partake in a classmate’s birthday celebration. Meanwhile, the current SAC-T had managed to create a Whatsapp group of all the applicants and called for everyone to assemble at the Pi Shop at 2 a.m. Once there, we were split into groups for an interesting, situation-based task. Here was the Pi-Shop- all the inventory was whatever was out on the display floor for us to see and we were to pretend that it was the month of July- right before the new PGP batch was to come in. The Pi Shop had asked the SAC-T for a loan (about 2 lakhs); given their cash balance and their current outstanding credit to the supplier, we were to decide whether the loan was to be sanctioned or not. We drew up estimates of their cost of procuring all the required inventory, assumed margins on all the items, assumed a cash discount percentage and decided that it was best to sanction the loan. We also figured that by our calculations, the loan amount could be repaid in a very short time.
There was an Industrial Visit on 3rd morning. Since we’d presented our final submission the last time that we were there, there wasn’t much to do this time. We had a short interaction, had lunch and then got back to campus around 2 p.m.
I then got around to doing some media comm work- mostly sending out e-mails related to the mentorship programme. Most of the Media Committee work takes place only at the end of the year, in the last term- there’s the yearbook being prepared, visiting cards being sourced for the batch, a mentorship programme being run for the candidates shortlisted for IIM-Indore’s WAT/PI and some miscellaneous activities. The mentorship programme is a rather complex process. We reach out to all the short-listed candidates by way of e-mail and a Facebook group. Students from campus volunteer to be mentors to these candidates- they are then matched up based on work experience, college and stream of study. This year, a larger number than usual of students signed up to be mentors which is definitely a positive.

There were 2 SDM classes in the evening where a case on GoodYear tyres was discussed. The tyre industry is pretty complex- there is more money to be made from auto services than from selling tyres yet you want dealers to be selling tyres too- each type of retailer has their own strategy to deal with this.
Later, we had the fifth session of the leadership workshop. A book summary was to be presented by our group. The book in question was ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’- we gave a short oral presentation, summarizing the 7 habits that the book talks about. It was while reading this book that I realised that I’d been first introduced to concepts in the book, specifically the urgent-important matrix when I was 4 years old, courtesy my father.
Right after, I played some Volleyball before heading up to the SAC Office in SR-7 for the last stage in the selection process for SAC-Treasurer. Unlike what I’d expected, none of the questions were really technical- understandably, technical prowess had been evaluated in the pre-processes. The questions focused on the candidate’s understanding of ethics, how the candidate reacts when faced with an ethical dilemma, management of the SAC fund and overseeing of the various for-profit ventures on campus including JAM, Pi Shop and Express-o-mat. From there, I headed off to the night mess before heading to my room and trying out the newly launched ‘Old Monk Radio’.
4th i.e. Thursday morning began with a Finance class where we learnt about Warrants & call options. There was then an SM class after which I promptly fell asleep. We then had an SDM class where we discussed the expansion of distribution channels for a manufacturer of organic yoghurt.
Ranbhoomi was to start the next day and practice was in order. We spent over an hour playing basketball and then proceeded to play volleyball. Since the night mess was closed, Globe@I (the recently back-in-business Globe@I) was making rolls and fried rice late into the night. There was then an HRM assignment to be done. Trying to figure out the problem statement in the case proved to be a bigger problem than the company in question seemed to be facing. Eventually, we agreed on a few things and put them into writing.
All this while, we were listening to the newly launched ‘Old Monk Radio’- they had added a new song dedication feature where one could (anonymously) dedicate songs to people in the batch. Some of the dedications were love-related, others were just plain funny. Someone managed to dedicate ‘Jaa Chudaail’ to a poor unsuspecting lady in the batch! We contemplated putting in a request but eventually decided against it when we failed to decide on a song.
The SAC-Treasurer and the two treasury members were announced over e-mail in the middle of the night. It has been finally decided that the work-load was too much for one person and a team of 3 members has been formed rather than just a single person as was the usual practice.
Ranbhoomi began on 5th morning, with some basketball matches. There were some classes to attend post which we devoted all our time to Ranbhoomi. The football matches were being held off-campus at a suitable ground; the cricket matches were held in the newly-built cricket stadium- that gave the residents of Lanka something to do for 3 days!
I pretty much lived on the basketball court for the three days that Ranbhoomi was on, watching all the matches. We watched a girls’ match on 5th afternoon, in an attempt to assess the competition. Our boys’ team had a match in the evening and a lot of people turned up to watch it. We had a match too- devoid of audience, but, we won! At 11:30 p.m., a movie screening was held in the Central Lawn- that’s also where all the food stalls were- Meximus, Thick Shake, Chick Blast, Faasos and more! There was even a guy selling popcorn & cotton candy and this food truck dishing out delectable Chinese.
The first Mock Bid for the Student Exchange Programme went live at 11 p.m. on 5th February. There is a list of about 30 partner universities to choose from- each has about 2-6 seats open. The Student Exchange Committee had sometime ago begun sending periodic e-mails with information about the universities to allow for informed decision-making. In the form, one could fill out a minimum of 4 and a maximum of all universities in an order of preference.
Meanwhile, all the different events on campus sent out Google Forms, asking the PGP1’s to fill in their decisions- whether to retain their POR and be promoted to being a member of the senior team, to try their luck at exchange and retain their POR if that fails or to simply give up their POR for personal reasons.
We had the second instalment of the Design Thinking Workshop on 6th Feb. It began with us going over our problem statement and generating possible solutions. We were to generate probable solutions under different scenarios- when you have an infinite budget, when you’re thinking like a child (this part was preceded by us watching some Tom & Jerry videos to get us in kid-mode), when you have absolutely no money, the more feasible solutions and the crazy solutions. In total, each group ended up with 25 different solutions to their problem. We were then asked to pick the most feasible solution(s) and prepare a prototype. We were given all sorts of craft material including thermocol, coloured paper, empty glasses, coloured tape, sketch pens, glue, string, straws and of course, anything that you could find around you was good to be a part of the prototype. Our problem statement dealt with improving the campus placement experience for the students. Accordingly, we drew up the user-interface of a mobile app and listed out its features- including schedule updation in real time & preparatory material in the form of short, animated clips, preferably with Tom & Jerry in them. We then proceeded to make a red punching bag- this was one of our suggested stress busters. Other ideas included music, a meditation room and sleeping pods. We then used the thermocol sheet to depict changing emotion through the placement process. We used the base of the paper cups to draw faces on and then pinned these, in sequence on the thermocol sheet. We then used straws to show the links. The finishing touch was suspending the punching bag from the bottom-right corner of the sheet. In the last hour of the workshop, each group was to present their solution and prototype. Someone had made a replica of the library, complete with book-shelves, seating and umbrellas in an open-air reading space. One group depicted the mess, with a barbeque station, wifi and comfortable seating. One group’s model was all equipped to deal with free riders in project groups- an all-in-one box that had alcohol bottles, mark-sheets and other incentives to get the usual free riders to work. One group dealt with improving the learning process by adding some field learning and industrial visits to the usual course curriculum. They’d made a model of the classroom- with a blackboard, the horse-shoe shaped seating and students. They’d also made a car-manufacturing assembly line- a group of curious students stood by the assembly line, watching carefully. Everyone attempted to do a critical review of everyone else’s work before we closed for the day.

I then walked out to the Central Lawn and stood watching a Kabbadi game- it was the semi-final, IIM-Indore v/s Sanghvi Institute of Management. It was nearly one-sided but fun to watch; there was a lot of cheering for the IIM-Indore team by some other opponents who had perhaps lost to the Sanghvi team earlier in the tournament. Soon after, a volleyball match started on the court next to the Academic Block- the teams were both equally good and our team lost by one point in the final set. Meanwhile, the Women’s Arm Wrestling event had begun bang in the middle of the central lawn. A tug-of-war rope had been drawn into a bout ring and the matches started. All three winners were from IIM-Indore. I’d contemplated participating but decided against it for I did not feel like breaking any arms. On my way down to the hostel, I stopped at Globe@I- they’d gotten a large cake on the occasion of the director’s birthday which happened to coincide with their first anniversary. There was cake for everyone and lots of pictures were clicked!

I then quickly headed down to the basketball court after changing into appropriate gear. A boys’ basketball match was just wrapping up- our team had managed a win and they had another match right after ours. It was a nice match that we managed to win. Our boys’ team then had a semi-final game. They played really well but the other team proved to be unbeatable (this was the same team that later won the final). Meanwhile, a counter-strike championship was in progress in Mess 1. Ranbhoomi was all set to cater to gamers of all sorts, this time around.

A bonfire had been arranged for at 10 p.m., in the Central Lawn. There was music, food, games, people and chocolate- a perfect end to the day!
7th morning began with the Women’s Basketball Final. The other team was really good; we’d earlier seen them playing and knew that we’d need to try really hard to even match up to them. We put up a close fight- we were even leading by a few points somewhere in the 3rd quarter after being down nearly 10 point right in the beginning. We lost the game 36-42 but were really happy. The Men’s final was held right after and we stayed to cheer even though the IIM-Indore team hadn’t made it to the final. It was a brilliant game that was finally won by Sharda University 62-52. Amity University were the runners up and we figured that could’ve just played this game in Delhi!
After lunch, I was back in my room when a batchmate had a proposition. We’d received an e-mail about a Policy Writing Challenge, courtesy of the RBI. A 2000-word essay was to be sent it by EOD; the topic was ‘Demographic Dividend of India: Opportunity or Threat’. She’d collected some demographic data and we got writing and were soon done. We then sent our work to another teammate to add the conclusion/recommendations.
Ranbhoomi’s closing ceremony began at 4:30 p.m. in the New Audi. Gautam Gambhir was the guest of honour for the evening and handed out all the prizes. We even received a trophy for Basketball! Right after the closing ceremony, Raahie- the Band was all set to perform. They’d come from Mumbai, just to perform at Ranbhoomi. They staged popular Bollywood songs and ended with an original composition. It was a very enjoyable hour- we wish they’d played longer. It was totally a dance party in the New Audi- a nice close to 3 fun-filled days. We then headed up to the Central Lawn to get ourselves some food.
Applications for the positions of the different fest coordinators were thrown open in the evening- there was to be one coordinator each for Udaan, Utsaha and i5Summit and two for Iris. 7th Feb also happened to be Rose Day- the first in the series of days in the run-up to Valentine’s Day on the 14th. Someone decided to use this opportunity to make some extra cash and thus, Airlift Delivery was born (for the night at least). An email was sent out to the institute with a Google form and some details. They had rose and cards on offer; these could be delivered anonymously for an extra fee of Rs.30 on top of the 50 bucks for a rose and 30 for a card. The idea was a great hit; they sent the email out late in the afternoon and had nearly a hundred orders to deliver by midnight. And no, I didn’t receive or send any roses.
8th morning began with an ISM Quiz. We’d been informed beforehand that the quiz would be MCQ type. Of course, there’s always a twist in the tale. The paper was MCQ alright- each question had one correct answer and one mark for marking the correct option. Then, there were two marks for explaining your choice. And, if your explanation was wrong, not only would your correct option not fetch marks, but there was an additional 25% penalty too! After the quiz, we received an email from the IPM Office- the government of Odisha has initiated a new scheme under which students from the state who belong to the ST category will receive a scholarship to study in premier national institutes.
We then had a few classes. Meanwhile a Committee was constituted to oversee the arrangements for the Convocation which is scheduled to be held on the 26th of March. We headed out in the evening and ordered some chicken tikka. This starter invariably turned into dinner when it was too spicy to be eaten by itself and we got some rotis to go with it.

Tuesday morning began with a few classes. Right after class, we had a Finance Quiz at 5 p.m. The quiz was fairly easy and dealt with the exact stuff that we’d been doing in class. We received an email about a Live project opportunity from the Consulting Club. It dealt with creating a Digital Media strategy for IIM-Indore which the winning team will get to implement over the course of the coming year.
In the evening, we gathered at Mess-1 at around 6:30 p.m., all set to go for a party. A party was being organized to celebrate the success of Utsaha- somehow, the other fests haven’t gotten around to having parties just yet. Buses had been arranged for and we headed to Vidorra where nice food and an inviting dance flood awaited us. An in-time extension to allow us to return to campus late had been arranged for and we got back close to 1 a.m. (as opposed to the usual 11:30 p.m. limit).
Somehow, Section E did not have any classes scheduled for 10th Feb- everyone else had classes since the Industrial Visits were now complete. There was an SDM class later in the evening where there was a rather interesting case being discussed- ‘Hulu: An evil plot to take over the world’. What it actually dealt with was an online video aggregator who promised on-demand access to popular content including movies and TV Series. I really like the idea the professor uses to tackle most cases- the classroom can be easily divided into 3 sections as per the seating arrangement and each section is to be one stakeholder in the case in order to allow for an analysis of the same problem from different perspectives. Our area was to be the customers, the next advertisers and the third the owners of cable and the content.
Someone in the PGP2 batch sent out an email offering his car up for sale. Understandably, he’s going to leave this one here and just get a new one wherever he is in the next few months. We contemplated asking for the details before deciding against it for I am still to learn how to drive (everyone else I know can, though).
Section E managed to get lucky, two days in a row- we didn’t have any classes on Thursday either! Perhaps, we’d had a lot of classes in the beginning of the term. We received an email announcing an SM Quiz at 2:30 p.m. The quiz was, as promised, largely MCQ type; there was also a short-notes section. There was then an SDM class at 3:30 p.m. We discussed Cisco’s strategy to venture into VoIP after having successfully captured the market for routers and switches. Right after the SDM class, I headed to the lawn adjacent to the MDC- Media Comm was to have a photoshoot (mainly because a team picture was needed for the yearbook). Most other Clubs/Committees had gotten their team pictures clicked, looking all professional, suited-up. Media Committee spent some time debating this- of course, formal attire was not even an option- we flitted between options including a VIBGYOR-themed picture, a pink/blue picture and an all-black picture. Eventually, everyone agreed on a colourful theme. Of course, there’s always someone who doesn’t quite agree and accordingly, someone turned up, dressed in black from head to toe. We quickly gathered into 2 lines and posed. I figured that we were done, but, someone suggested that we try a change of scenery. We headed behind ER-2 and posed with the clouds. Our boss felt that the pictures were ‘boring’ and that he wasn’t ‘feeling it’. Deciding to humour him, we worked quickly and the poor guy ended up being suspended in mid-air by a giggling team as many pictures were rapidly shot. We then clicked some pictures at the main entrance of the Academic Block- here, we even used a parked institute bus as background. A final few pictures in the Central Lawn, the Open Air Theatre and about an hour later, we were finally done- we’d surely succeeded in making and capturing some memories!
Right after, I headed over the Old Audi- an interaction session with the Director had been arranged for two sections at a time. Director Sir urged us to Build A Career, have dreams and follow them; the floor was then opened to questions/suggestions about the PGP curriculum and the campus in general. Suggestions varied from the timings of the Fin Lab and the surprise quizzes to the student exchange programme and the industrial visits. Sir was very positive about some reasonable suggestions and promised changes.
We were informed that the term would end on the 22nd of March- we’re looking to plan a trip to somewhere before our internships start- most likely on the 4th of April. I’m still waiting on some written communication regarding my internship; hopefully, it shall reach me some time soon. Sports Comm sent out an email announcing the 6th Edition of the campus IPL.
SPICMACAY conducted an online quiz at around 11:30 p.m. It was to be related to classical dance, music and art; of course, we decided to participate. The quiz was, as they’d promised, very interesting. More than anything, we were surprised by our (hitherto unknown) knowledge about these topics. We didn’t win, though.
12th morning began with a few classes – an HRM class where we discussed the idea of Tata Motors restructuring their rather complicated compensation structure. Later in the day, we received an email from the E-Cell announcing plans for a new change in the PGP curriculum to encourage entrepreneurship. Students who have a concrete startup idea that they wish to pursue through their second year can opt to study 15 credits worth of entrepreneurship-related courses and complete the rest of their credits through the work they do on their startup. Interactions with angel investors and access to the development labs of industries around Indore will be arranged for by the institute; further, a two-year placement deferral option will be made available. This really looks like a step in sync with the new StartUp India campaign. Here’s hoping that IIM-Indore gives birth to some stellar entrepreneurs!
We had an HRM Quiz at 5 p.m. It was an open-spiral, MCQ Quiz. Of course, there’s always a catch- there was negative marking and the quiz was only 15 minutes long!

Acad Comm. sent out an email asking for feedback on the class representatives – this was to be an important criteria in the selection of the senior team. Later, there was a DT assignment to be sent in- while we’d all initially planned to send in more or less similar assignments, when I got writing, I couldn’t stop. I started with detailing out my experience and learnings and then wrote extensively about applying the Design Thinking Concepts that we’d learnt to playing more effective Basketball.
13th morning began with Saraswati Puja at 7 a.m. We then had a Finance class which was to serve as a review session before the midterm. We’d planned to head out early in the evening but we managed to fall asleep and then headed out for dinner.
Before heading out, we wrote out a few Valentine’s Day cards to drop into the ‘Pyaar ka Matka’. Like every year, this year too, the Cultural Committee had arranged for matkas to be placed at strategic locations- one could write cards to any person of their choosing- just that the cards were all to be anonymous.
At 12:01 a.m., the bidding for our SDM Project topics began- the rule was simple- you had to email the section & the professor with your chosen industry. The chosen industry would be allotted to the first person to send in the email- somehow there wasn’t too much of an overlap in people’s choices though FMCG was the most popular. We picked the readymade Apparel industry.
Another edition of the Zumba classes was all set to begin on Sunday morning- it will be a daily feature at the Gym above Mess 3. Sunday was obviously sleepy- we headed up at around 3 p.m. to get some biryani- Noor’s Kitchen was on campus selling 4 different types of biryani.
Later in the evening, I got to compiling our Sustainability group assignment. We’d picked the topic ‘Evaluating Social Capital at IIM-Indore’. All the group members had, in pairs interviewed the service staff on campus- the housekeeping staff, the transport staff, the medical centre staff, the security staff and the mess staff. Questions had included the positives of their work, the problems they face and possible solutions. Most of them are happy with their work, mainly due to the job security and the positivity associated with the brand name.

After sending this in, I attempted to make some plans for Valentine’s Day- of course, all my attempts failed. I then just ate in the Night Mess after taking a long walk around campus.

Monday i.e. 15th morning began with some classes- the last ISM session (where we closed with a quiz) and then the last HRM session. We ended the session by clicking a group picture with the professor. Later in the day, Cul Comm sent out an email announcing Mr. & Miss Valentine- based on the number of cards received.
We then attempted to study some Finance for the midterm; soon, we just ended up in the night mess.
The Finance midterm began at 10:30 a.m. It was a 2-hour long paper that covered all the concepts that we’d discussed in class. Part A was case-based and Part B had some True & False questions.
In the evening, we executed our (delayed) Valentine’s Day plans and headed to Chef’s to eat some Roestti and Pasta. Somehow, there were no classes scheduled on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday morning began late, with some rice for lunch. We then got to writing testimonials for the yearbook since it was the last day to send them in.
I then participated in a focus group discussion on online marketplaces for automobiles- this was needed for some MR project that everyone was working on. And now, there’s a Lasya party to attend!

17/02/2016

25/01/2016; 00:29:

It’s been an eventful week, with Nihilanth and classes.

I don’t think anyone got any sleep, the night before Nihilanth was to begin. We received an e-mail announcing the closure of Globe@I- it’s now to be closed indefinitely.
The IIT-BHU kids got to Khandwa Railway Station at 3 a.m., as scheduled. Initially, an institute bus was to pick them up from there but since, as we later realized, the distance is about 100 k.m., this was thus not arranged. They got themselves on a bus to Indore which would drop them at BhawarKuan at around 7 a.m.
An institute bus was arranged for this pick-up. At around 7 a.m., I got to Bhawarkuan, got the 24 kids on the bus and back to campus and into a common room. A lot of people in my batch are from IIT-BHU and they were happy to meet their juniors. Later, I headed to the HRC where we’d set up a registration desk. Registration forms, food coupons and copies of the schedule were to be handed out to each participant at the time of registration (this technically included the room keys too, but, those were handed out as soon as the participants got to campus). I headed up to the Academic Block to get print-outs- 250 copies each of all the requisite papers.

Meanwhile, one of our team members walked to the HRC, dejected. He’d spent at hour waiting at the airport for an arrival who apparently missed the flight and never bothered to inform us. By the time he was done telling his story, his phone buzzed- another team, from IIM-Bangalore I believe had just about landed in Indore. And then, just like that, he made his way back to the airport!

At around 10:30, we made our way to the railway station to pick up the IIT-Bombay kids. We had a hard time spotting them at the railway station even though there were about 25 of them! Finally, we got to campus and into the SR-09 common room.
Registrations went on till about 2 p.m. by which time all 20 participating colleges were on campus. There was a short opening ceremony at 2:45 p.m. post which the General Quiz began. Each quiz had more or less a similar format- there was a written prelim for everyone after which 8 teams/individuals qualified for the stage round. All questions were designed by the quizmaster in charge of that quiz and included audio-visual clues as well as star-marked questions.
First up was the General Quiz conducted by Mr. Vikram Joshi – Winner of the 2014 World Quizzing Championship- was held right after.
There were a total of 257 participants from 20 IIT’s and IIM’s including IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Kharagpur.
IIT-Bombay won the General Quiz. The Sports Quiz began at 6 p.m., conducted by Mr. Chandrakant Nair.

After the prelims of the Sports Quiz, a comedy night was in store after a hectic day of quizzing- . Youtube star, Kenny Sebastian was here, from Bangalore, to entertain the crowd. The student community finds his jokes very relatable and he even strung together random words from the crowd into an original song, on the spot!
But, right after the comedy night, it was back to the quizzes- the prelims of the India Quiz and the stage round of the Sports Quiz. This was won by IIT-Madras.

It was back to business, early on Saturday morning. IIM-Indore won the business quiz, bringing the first and only victory for the IIM’s at this edition of Nihilanth. IIT-Madras won the India quiz too.

Post-lunch, the Science-Tech quiz was held, conducted by Mr. Navin Rajaram - Part of KQA and host of the Texas Instruments Sci-Tech Quiz. Here, IIT-Madras continued their winning streak- both the winning team as well as the runners-up were from there.

To add a touch of entertainment, the MELA Quiz was conducted by Mr. Venkatesh Srinivasan. The MELA i.e. Music, Entertainment, Literature and Art quiz was replete with audio-visual cues and very enjoyable. Just the sheer amount of random facts & figures that people in the quizzing world know is astounding. We sat in on a few quizzes and were pleasantly surprised to actually know quite a few answers in the prelims!

Through the day, we tried to closely follow the developments on the ‘Start Up India’ scene- the closing ceremony with the PM’s speech was broadcast live in all premier institutes including ours.

17th i.e. Sunday was the last day of the quizzing activities- and the Lone Wolf quiz conducted by Mr. Suraj Menon was the best way to end with a bang. It was the ultimate challenge- questions across domains and one single winner. Both the winner as well as the runner-up were from IIT-Madras.

The Prize Distribution saw IIT-Madras celebrating as they were crowned Nihilanth Champions for the third year in a row.
Pongal was celebrated on campus, in the evening with a series of games, culminating in a traditional Pongal feast and loud music!

The same weekend i.e. 16-17th January was also the 10 Year Alumni Reunion for the 2006 Batch. The campus was buzzing with activity since a lot of the alumni had brought along their families including little kids.
Arena, the Gaming Club held an Alumni v/s PGP CounterStrike tournament at 4 p.m. An interaction session with the alumni was held at 12:30 p.m. I also got to meet the Finance head from the company I’ll be interning at this summer- he’s an alumni of the 2006 batch and it seems like there will be a lot to learn over the 2 months.
18th morning began with an ISM (Information Systems for Managers) class. The professor has decided that each group ought to send in an analysis of every case that we’ll be dealing with. A total of 4 questions are sent the day before the ISM class, to be submitted the same evening. 4 groups (1 question per group) are then randomly called on, in class to discuss said questions.
We had our first session of RCB (Retail and Corporate Banking) in the afternoon. The course will be conducted in two parts- Retail Banking & Corporate Banking, to be taught by two different faculty. The Corporate Banking professor has been in the industry for nearly 20 years and there is just so much to learn!
Meanwhile, the PGP Office has been sending in the time-table for the next day, each single day. An integrated one, till the 15th of February has been uploaded on the intranet but does not resemble these daily time-tables. So along with the surprise quizzes, there is now a new element of suspense on the cards.

We had our first HRM (Human Resource Management) class on Tuesday. The professor is really nice; most of the session was spent picking on a guy in our section who’s worked at Infosys- the subject of the day’s case. Unfortunately, the course is only 2-credits, down from the 4 it was last year.
At 12:15 p.m., we assembled in the Old Auditorium to hear the President of India’s address on the topic ‘Youth and Nation Building’ as part of the National Knowledge Sharing Network.

Applications for the post of SAC-Coordinator were thrown open and I decided to try my luck. Of course, a series of pre-processes was in store- a necessary evil perhaps.

A briefing session was called for at 8 p.m., in the Academic Block. All applicants for the post of SAC-C were present as was the current SAC-C. The idea was to let us know exactly what we were attempting to sign up for. Round 1 of the pre-process was sent to us shortly after. There were a couple of questions to be answered including why you want to be SAC-C, instances of leadership in the past, and two candidates other than you who would be suitable for the post. One nice thing about such questions is the fact that they make you actually think about why you want to do certain things in a certain way, what values are important to you and the life lessons you’ve gained from different experiences.
We had an industry visit on the 20th i.e. Wednesday. We headed to our assigned company- we’d been working on our project for a while now and our final submission was ready to be presented and reviewed. It was good team-work that resulted in a detailed Balanced Score Card for the Rolling Department of the company. We were lauded for our efforts and a few tweaks and changes were suggested which we ought to incorporate before the final submission to the panel which will happen perhaps at the end of the term.
CulComm sent out an e-mail, inviting volunteers to help with the Farewell preparations. The Farewell for the senior batch.

Round 2 of the SAC-C pre-process was also a written one. There were a few questions to be answered in a word document- two things you would change as SAC-Coordinator; comparing one club/committee at IIM-Indore to a similar entity in another B-School and an e-mail to the director, on behalf of the batch, talking about the hectic schedule we currently have. I wrote about working to increase the number of students who come to campus on student exchange and having a single body to garner sponsorship for all events that happen on campus instead of a separate team for each event. I then compared the Academic Committee here to the one at IIM-Calcutta.
A workshop on Design Thinking has been introduced as part of the curriculum for the PGP1, this year. It is to be held in two parts, the first of which was held on the 21st. We were introduced to the idea of design thinking and given successful instances of corporate implantation of design thinking. We were then split into groups; each group was given a problem that was to be approached and solved from a design thinking perspective. The first step was to detail out the process involved; then, we were to interview the consumer, in our case the students of PGP1 and note their current experiences. These were then compiled into an idea map. We shall continue working on this, in the second part of the workshop which should be held soon. Most of the day was spent on this workshop.
22nd morning began with a few classes and the Design Thinking workshop for the other 4 sections. Meanwhile most end-term papers from last term were shown during the week, before the grades are finalized. We then had a Finance-II Quiz at 4:50 p.m. Of course, in keeping with the new tradition, the e-mail announcing the quiz was sent to us only at 3:30 p.m. The quiz was simple and based entirely on what we’d been doing in class.

The SAC-Treasurer sent out an e-mail to both the batches sharing the audited financial reports of the SAC for the financial year ended 31st March, 2015. The unaudited report for this financial year will be shared soon.